Love Transform Evolve

When you spend so much time caring for a loved one, it's inevitable that your entire personality becomes tied up in being a caregiver. Sliding back into your old life can feel excruciatingly uncomfortable, and there's very little support for those of us making that transition.

On this final episode of season one of Lead With Love, we examine what happens when our caregiving journey comes to an end. To help with this, we're joined once again by Anita Mehta, the Director of Education and Knowledge Exchange at the Montreal Institute for Palliative Care, and Katrina Prescott, a caregiver and advocate.

I want to take a moment to thank you all for being a part of this incredible journey. To all the caregivers out there, I see you, and you are not alone in this.

For more information on caregiving, please check out the following resources:

Caregiving benefits and leave - Canada.ca

https://canadiancaregiving.org/caregivers/caregiver-resources/

https://www.lappui.org/en/

ontariocaregiver.ca

caregiversalberta.ca

familycaregiversbc.ca

https://www.caregivercare.ca/

https://continuing.mcmaster.ca/programs/health-social-services/caregiving-essentials/ socialprescribing.ca

https://canadiancaregiving.org/

https://amiquebec.org/youngcarers/

https://residencesoinspalliatifs.ca/en/

http://www.virtualhospice.ca

When caring for a loved one, it's really easy to fall into a negative headspace, and fail to recognize the blessings on our journey.

This week on Lead With Love, host Cynthia Iorio discusses how to practice gratitude on a difficult journey, without falling into a toxic positivity mindset. She's joined by Kathy Bohley, a Chaplain at the James Oncology Center in Ohio, as well as Grace Chapman, a nurse and caregiver also based in Ohio. The two offer valuable insight on holding space for family members who are caring for a loved one, highlighting the importance of leading with love.

Also in this episode, we reflect on the medical community, and we'll hear from Sabrina Propper, a Family Support Worker at Jewish Family and Child Services in Toronto, who joins us to share a beautiful story about a family that she worked with.

Being thrust into the role of caregiver can be all consuming. There is no self any longer, you're fully committed to this new way of life. Sometimes you've quit your job, moved back home, and have little time for outside commitments that aren't directly related to caring for your loved one. The absolute greatest lesson we can learn as we're caring for someone else is to remember to fill our own cups.

This week, we're joined by Anita Mehta, a registered nurse and licensed family therapist, who is also the Director of Education and Knowledge Exchange at the Montreal Institute for Palliative Care, a branch of the Teresa Dellar Palliative Care Residence, as well as Jessica Baldwin, Cynthia's close friend. You'll also hear from Katrina Prescott, a caregiver and advocate whom we heard from in previous episodes.

For more information on the Teresa Dellar Palliative Care Residence, you can visit their website: https://residencesoinspalliatifs.ca/en/

When you find out that someone you love has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, there are certain opportunities that open that didn't exist before. Opportunities to to open up, to communicate, and to say how you feel. Because the end of someone's life is sacred ground. On this week's episode of Lead With Love, host Cynthia Iorio is joined by Anita Mehta, a registered nurse and licensed family therapist, who is also the Director of Education and Knowledge Exchange at the Montreal Institute for Palliative Care, a branch of the Teresa Dellar Palliative Care Residence, to discuss what palliative care looks like for different people. And, Cynthia is also joined by close friend Jessica Baldwin, who was there when Cynthia found out about her mother's diagnosis.

For more information on the Teresa Dellar Palliative Care Residence, you can visit their website: https://residencesoinspalliatifs.ca/en/

When you're a caregiver, every day of your life looks different. The task list gets longer, the physical demands increase, and the emotional toll wreaks havoc on your soul. For many caregivers, help isn't just nice, it's a necessity. But being asked "what can I do to help" can feel incredibly overwhelming when you're already so heavily burdened with everything else that you're already dealing with. So, what can you say to friends and family members who ask that dreaded question? And, if YOU know someone who is actively caregiving, how can you help without creating additional emotional labour?

Katrina Prescott is a caregiver and advocate, who spoke about the one thing that caregivers need most right now. And, we also hear from Sabrina Propper, a Family Support Worker at Jewish Family and Child Services in Toronto, who works with families who have recently received an autism diagnosis.

It takes a special kind of person to run into a burning building when everyone else is running out. Caregiving for a loved one can be a very similar ordeal, and that's a theme that we explore this week on Lead With Love, a caregivers podcast, hosted by Cynthia Iorio. This week, we'll hear a few familiar voices in Liv Mendelsohn (executive director of the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence), Oliver Fitzpatrick (Young Carers Project Coordinator at AMI-Quebec), and Terrence Ho, who we heard from earlier this season. Their unique insight into what makes a caregiver leap into action when others cower away provides a valuable lesson to us all.

•You can follow Terrence on Instagram at TerrenceHo.

•To learn more about the CCCE, you can visit their website at https://canadiancaregiving.org/

•For more on young carers and the support that's available to them, visit https://amiquebec.org/youngcarers/

Denial can be a powerful thing, but it doesn't necessarily have to be a weakness. In fact, denial can serve a bigger purpose, and oftentimes acts as a protector to our brains. This week on Lead With Love, host Cynthia Iorio talks about what denial has looked like in her own caregiving journey, and how it has served her.

Cynthia also is joined by Sabrina Propper, a Family Support Worker at Jewish Family and Child Services in Toronto. The two met at the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence's first annual summit in Ottawa, and both took away something completely unexpected from the conference.

We'll also hear from Katrina Prescott this week, a caregiver and tireless advocate, on what her own caregiving journey was like.

In this inaugural episode of Lead With Love, host Cynthia Iorio tackles the tough but rewarding topic of caregiving. As a caregiver to both of her parents when they were in the end-stages of their lives, Cynthia comes armed with a unique perspective from her lived experience. This week, she's joined by Terrence Ho, a caregiver and tireless advocate, as well as Liv Mendelsohn, the Executive Director of the Canadian Centre of Caregiving Excellence, and Oliver Fitzpatrick, the Young Carers Project Coordinator at AMI-Quebec.

•You can follow Terrence on Instagram at TerrenceHo.

•To learn more about the CCCE, you can visit their website at https://canadiancaregiving.org/

•For more on young carers and the support that's available to them, visit https://amiquebec.org/youngcarers/